In often frequented public or private places, a large variety of automatic dispensers of food products are frequently present. Whether it be question of cold products such as sandwiches, or of hot products such as pizzas or hamburgers, these products are always made up in the factory and stored at low temperature in the dispenser until a consumer purchases them. In that case, the role of the dispenser is limited to delivering and possibly heating up one of the products previously made in the factory.
Although they are of generally acceptable quality, these products do not offer the consumer a flavour equivalent to that of the same product made up to order from whole fresh ingredients, due to the time that they spend in the dispenser and to the conserving products added for their preservation.
This problem of flavour is very sensitive as far as sandwiches are concerned. Namely, a sandwich is mainly composed of two slices of bread between which perishable ingredients (ham, eggs, tomatoes, lettuce, . . . ) are arranged. These ingredients must, in most cases, be sliced before being placed in the bread. It is known that an ingredient such as a tomato or an egg for example, spoils much more quickly when it is sliced than when it is whole. For a given duration of conservation, vegetables, fruits or even meat, keep their flavour and freshness much better when whole. Consequently, after it has been made, a sandwich must be consumed rapidly if the flavour of the sandwich ingredients is to remain intact. However, for practical and economic reasons, present-day sandwich dispensers cannot be supplied with sandwiches sufficiently often to be able to deliver fresh and tasty products at all times. Moreover, the whole sandwich, i.e. the bread with the ingredients, is stored at a relatively low temperature for conservation purposes. Consequently, when the consumer buys a sandwich, the bread which is generally appreciated at ambient temperature, is at the same temperature as the ingredient. This is even more detrimental to the overall flavour of the product.
At the present time, certain fast-food establishments deliver sandwiches to order. However, such establishments have relatively high investment and management costs. Namely, a fast-food establishment involves the employment of staff and the renting or purchase of premises. Moreover, this type of establishment generally has opening hours which do not allow sandwiches to be offered at all times.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks set forth hereinabove and to produce, economically, an automatic sandwich dispenser which enables sandwiches to be automatically made from whole fresh ingredients, to order, while requiring minimum manpower to keep it supplied.